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The Ideal Major Chopin Piano Works · The Piano Maven with Jed Distler

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This is Jed Disler, and welcome to The Piano
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Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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Today is October 20th, 2025, and tonight is the
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night that we hear the final performances in
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the... closing final rounds of the Chopin competition
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here in Warsaw. I am in Warsaw. I've been here
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for the entire competition, blogging about it
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for Gramophone and also having daily Chopin reports
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on video, which you can watch on YouTube. And
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we will find out the winner tonight. And as we
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wait for the results with bated breath, I thought
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that it could be fun to put a list together of
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the ideal Chopin major piano works, and I would
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recommend two recorded versions for each of these,
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one being a historic choice or an historic choice.
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Do you say a or an? I can't remember. I've been
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working too hard here, and my brain is turning
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into jello. But we will have one. historic choice
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and one modern era choice. And what I mean by
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the major Chopin solo works is that I'm talking
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about recorded cycles of the complete waltzes,
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the complete polonaises, complete mazurkas, etc.,
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etc. And my goal is not to repeat a pianist on
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this list. Now, I have mentioned some of these
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recordings in earlier episodes, and I probably
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will discuss them in upcoming episodes. But I'm
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going to go through the list pretty quickly.
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And I know that you are going to weigh in with
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your comments and your own choices. And I will
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offer a couple of honorable mentions as alternatives
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in the case of modern recordings. Because I know
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that you're going to say, hey Jed, how can you
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recommend pianist X in the etudes when everyone
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knows that the best etudes are by pianist Y?
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I mean, why don't you know that? That's a fact.
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Of course it's a fact, right? And I've also chosen
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some recordings as well that may not be my personal
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tip -top all -time favorites, but they still
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are terrific and highly recommendable. The point
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being is that there are no weak links on this
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list, at least in my unhumble opinion. So get
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ready. Here we go. We're going to start with
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the etudes. And when I did my talk on recorded
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versions of the Chopin etudes last year, I mentioned
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from the 1950s the mono recording by Paul Badura
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Skoda. So that will be my historic choice here
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again, simply because they're really well played
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and consistently musical. My top modern version
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in that Chopin etudes talk was by Juana Zayas,
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her 1983 recording on music and arts. But I'm
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actually going to bait and switch. And I'm going
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to recommend the very recent recording by Yoon
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Chan Lim. Now, all of the critics raved about
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this one, and it won the Gramophone Award. Although
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I hedged my bets a little bit, because I sometimes
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think that this pianist is a little too clever
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for his own good. But for sheer virtuosity and
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entertainment value and genuine musicality, I
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enjoy this set. of Chopin etudes by Yoon Chan
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Lim for what it is. So I have no hesitation about
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putting it in as a modern recommendation. Okay,
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now we get to the waltzes. My historic choice.
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Well, it is stereo and it's from the 1960s, but
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I suppose we can allow that to be historic because
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it's on melodia and the sound quality is not
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the greatest. This cycle of waltzes features
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Bela Davidovich, and I think that her performances
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are gorgeously nuanced and proportioned. They're
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full of imagination, but they're also tasteful
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and cultivated. And had these recordings been
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generally available in the West and in better
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sound, they would have challenged Arthur Rubinstein's
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supremacy as a reference version. I'm talking
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about his stereo version. But in recent years,
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Rubinstein's domination in the waltzes has been
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challenged. And I bring up the Alexander Thoreau
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recording because he brings great originality
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and insight to everything he touches in the waltzes.
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And he also comes up with an interesting running
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order in contrast to presenting the waltzes numerically.
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I recently did an episode about the Chopin preludes
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and recommended recordings, so I guess I have
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to regurgitate two versions from that list. So
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my historic choice for this ideal list of Chopin
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major works is the recording that Alfred Courtauld
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made in 1934. I think it's sonically and technically,
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pianistically speaking, best of his three versions
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of the preludes that he recorded on 78s. Each
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prelude pretty much inhabits its own world and
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has its own character in the hands of Courtauld.
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And you can say the same for one of the most
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underrated of modern recorded prelude cycles.
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And this is the one on brilliant classics with
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Wolfram Schmidt Leonardi. I remember when this
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first came out, I got so engrossed with this
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release that when I wrote my review for classicstoday
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.com, I got really carried away with detail.
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And I wrote a review that probably was much longer
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than it necessarily should have been. But I'm
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glad I really... wrote such a detailed review
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because this is a very detailed and deeply considered
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and stylish and absolutely first -class edition
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of the Preludes. Wolfram Schmidt Leonardi. He
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is such an outstanding musician, and he has one
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of the most consistently satisfying discographies
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out there, not just in Chopin, but in Schumann,
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and there's a wonderful Scarlatti disc. He has
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a new Beethoven disc. I have not yet heard it,
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but I look forward to it. Now we get to the...
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And I have talked about that genius live 1964
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performance from Moscow with Arthur Rubinstein
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way too often on this podcast or in any other
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public forum where I appear. But because Rubinstein
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appears later on in this podcast list of ideal
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major Chopin works, my historic choice. will
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just simply have to be the classic Dinu Lepati
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recording. And can you believe that he did not
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want this to be? It was only released after his
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death, and it's been the gold standard of Chopin
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Barcarolles for 75 years, so that's kind of a
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shoo -in. Now, when I did my recommendations
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for Ben Laude on his Chopin podcast, I spoke
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about Roland Pertinen's wonderful performance
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of the Barcarolle as a modern reference version,
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and it is indeed wonderful. However, for our
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purposes now, I re -listened to a whole slew
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of Barcarolles released over the past 25 years
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or a little more, and I kept coming back to this
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really elegant, really transparent, and very
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line -oriented interpretation that manages to
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reconcile Chopin's classicism with his foreshadowing
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impressionism in certain ways. This is the recording
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by Richard Goode from his only all Chopin disc.
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You don't think of Richard Goode as a Chopin
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specialist at all, but this is one of the best
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barquerels I know on disc. You really have to
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hear it. For the berceuse, for my historic choice,
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I have another pianist who was hardly known for
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Chopin and whose Chopin I often find underwhelming,
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but Everything comes gorgeously together when
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Wilhelm Kempf. plays the berceuse. And he set
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the berceuse down for Decca in the late 1950s.
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And it's a gorgeous recording with prismatic
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textures and gradations of tone and articulation.
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It's just divine. And my modern recommendation
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for the berceuse remains Murray Pariah. And I've
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talked about this recently in my berceuse roundup,
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so I really don't need to say more about this.
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Now for piano. Piano Sonata No. 2. How can I
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not recommend Rachmaninoff's 1930 recording as
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my historic choice? Of course, he totally rewrites
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the dynamics and phrasings, and he puts his own
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forceful personal stamp on every bar. But what
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a powerful and shattering listening experience
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this recording still is 95 years after it was
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made. modern versions is the Nelson Freire recording
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on Decca. It's full of fire and poetry and personality.
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Everything is there. Now for piano sonata number
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three, my historic choice. Actually, we're spoiled
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for strong historic choices in the B minor sonata.
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But I'm going to mention the world premiere 1925
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recording with Percy Granger. And this interpretation
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still holds up. And my colleague Peter Rabinowitz
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actually recommended this in his recent gramophone
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collection survey of the Chopin B minor sonata
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recordings on disc. Percy Granger's music making
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is wonderfully communicative and energetic. So
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alive. And of course, you would expect that for
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my modern... ideal choice, I would mention Martha
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Argerich, and her interpretation is still at
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the top of the list, so that was a no -brainer.
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Ah, but which studio Martha Argerich recording
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from 1965? Her Deutsche Grammophon version or
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the one that she recorded for EMI that was not
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released until the late 1990s? I slightly lean
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toward the EMI version, but basically both of
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these are fantastic. So it's like apples and
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oranges. Now for A Cycle of the Balots. My challenge
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was to pick the historic version for this list
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that was not Alfred Courtauld, because we have
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Courtauld in the preludes. So I'm torn between
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the classically oriented and emotionally cool
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early 1950s version of the ballads with Robert
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Cassaday -Sue and then the much more willful
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mono recordings by Samson François. I guess I'm
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going to go with Samson François because he's
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sort of quarto by proxy in many ways. And for
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my top modern or modern -ish, I've talked about
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Ivan Morovets from the 1960s, and that was my
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choice for the Balads in my Chopin podcast recommendation
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for Ben Laude. And I love the Ivan Morovets version.
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And my friend David Hurwitz has recommended the
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Ivan Morovets Chopin Balads. often in his videos.
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This is poetic and refined playing with not one
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note out of place and without any phrase that
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hasn't been worked out. But the sense of organic
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flow to these performances makes you forget the
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sheer workmanship involved. Now let's go to the
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four scherzos. George Bolette recorded the Scherzos
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for the Remington label in 1953. Remington was
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one of the first budget classical labels, and
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these performances were reissued on the Marston
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label. And you get all the salient qualities
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that you associate with George Bolette in these
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performances. They may not be the most scintillating
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versions out there, but the musicality really
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speaks volumes. However, for youthful scintillation
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and fire, as well as lyricism, it's kind of difficult
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for me to choose between three modern editions
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of the four scherzos. And since I did pick the
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Deutsche Grammophon recording by Xiangjin Cho
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when I did Ben Laude's Chopin podcast, I'm going
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to go for my modern choice here, Benjamin Grosvenor's
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fantastic cycle of the four scherzos. So it was
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on the Decca label. Benjamin Grosvenor is the
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real thing. He's a great pianist. He's a great
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artist. And he's also one of the nicest and most
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modest musicians I know. He was a guest on my
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radio show Between the Keys right before the
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pandemic. And he wears his brilliance lightly.
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Moving on to the F minor fantasy, no question,
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the historic version of choice is the great 1932
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recording by Solomon. And the most volatile and
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impassioned modern recording, believe it or not,
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is the one that Claudio Arau made for Phillips
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when he was in his early 70s. And to my ears,
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it has more fire in its belly than in Arau's
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earlier recordings of the fantasy. We come to
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the four impromptus as a cycle. And for the historic
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choice, I still love those mono recordings on
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the Vox label with Miroslav Horshavsky. They're
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absolutely beautiful. And my modern edition remains
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my regular reference version choice of Earl Wilde.
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Now to the nocturnes. From the early 1950s, my
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historic choice is Jan Smetterlin, because he
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has this genius for projecting melodies and making
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them float over the bar lines. And for my modern
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choice, the recent Chopin Nocturne cycle with
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Stephen Hoff on Hyperion. I love. These are deeply
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felt performances. They are meticulously thought
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out and pianistically distinctive. And they stand
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with the best of the Nocturne cycles. And you
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always hear something new each time you listen
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to any of these performances. And they're beautifully
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engineered, too, by the way. For the Mazurkas,
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my historic choice, it can't be Rubinstein, because
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he's going to make an appearance very soon. My
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historic choice, and this may surprise you, is
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Nadia Reisenberg. She recorded them for Westminster
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in the 1950s, and they were reissued on Bridge.
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I'm going to quote from my review of her mazurka
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cycle that I wrote for classicstoday .com. I
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wrote that, compared to Rubinstein's natural
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singing tone and sprinting elan, Reisenberg's
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mazurkas generally are more angular, and hard
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-edged, but not without poetic reserves. Notwithstanding
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occasional rhythmic stiffness, opus 7 number
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1's over -articulated melody, opus 68 number
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2's unsettled basic pulse, and the earthbound
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opus 50 number 1. Well, opus 50 number 1, who
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cares? I cannot stand that piece. Reisenberg
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is sympathetic toward the wide range of moods
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and styles that Chopin brought to the mazurka
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idiom. She plays down Op. 24 No. 4's inherent
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athleticism in order to let the contrapuntal
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writing sink in, yet she relishes the elemental
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swagger of Op. 56 No. 2's bass lines and the
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posthumous C major mazurka's quirky modality.
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The pianist delivers the goods when the music
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calls for lilt and delicacy, but she also serves
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up an eccentric detail or two. So that's Nadia
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Reisenberg, and it's well worth checking out.
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For my modern mazurka cycle, I chose Garrick
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Olson's recordings when I put my recommendations
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together for the Chopin podcast with Ben Laude,
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and I stand by that recommendation. But for the
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purpose of this podcast episode, I have another
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modern recommendation. I absolutely adore the
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spontaneity and elan and the sheer joy in music
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making that comes across in the mazurka cycle
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issued on the Centaur label featuring the late,
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great Brazilian pianist Antonio Barbosa. And
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these recordings should be heard by... anyone
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who loves the Mazurkas, and that means all Chopin
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lovers. And last but not least, the Polonaises.
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And yes, here's the man you've been waiting for.
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Drumroll. My historic choice, Arthur Rubinstein.
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But not his versions on 78s, but rather his early
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1950s mono -LP remakes. Because they have all
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of the swing and the verve of the 78 RPM versions,
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but with... a little more meticulous attention
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to detail. And my modern version of the Polonaises
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still remains the one by Maurizio Polini. Those
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who think of Polini as a cold, mechanical, aloof
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player will be totally surprised by the verve
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and centeredness and imaginative phrasings that
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he brings to this repertoire. This is a real
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surprise and it remains a real keeper. So those
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are recommendations on my ideal major Chopin
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works list. And I've put in links to find these
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recordings where you can hear them or where you
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can purchase them. And I wish you happy listening
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as we anticipate the final verdict and who will
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be the... top three winners of the 19th International
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Chopin Competition here in Warsaw. This is Jed
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Disler, and you've been listening to The Piano
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Maven, your friendly podcast guide to piano recordings.
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Until next time, take good care, and I look forward
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to being with you for our next episode.